UNDERSTANDING THE BLACK COLLEGE DROPOUT 1

Understanding the Black College Dropout

Jaquelia T. Jefferson

Texas A&M University-Commerce

UNDERSTANDING THE BLACK COLLEGE DROPOUT 2

Introduction

More and more employers in todays world are seeking applicants with post-secondary

degrees. A study by CareerBuilder.com found that some 27 percent of employers have raised

their educational requirements in the past five years, largely because they reported getting a

better return on investment from their college educated employees, when compared to workers

with just high school diplomas (Git, 2014). This degree that employers seek not only limits who

may be a potential hire for that particular position but, also affects the earning potential of the

applicant. With the high demand of a post-secondary degree to obtain a decent profession what

happens to those individuals that started the quest for higher learning but never finished? More

precisely, the African-American (black) students. What were the factors that contributed to these

African-American students not obtaining their goal of achieving a post-secondary degree? This

research will evaluate the reasons why those students were not successful in their pursuit of

higher education and determine if the reasons could have possibly be prevented.

Statement of the Problem

This research will look into the factors that contribute to African-American students not

completing their goal of obtaining a college degree. This study will view several major

components that influence the decision making process that these students use when deciding

whether or not to continue their education. The research will decide which factors influences the

students decision and determine if the college/university is implementing any programs as a

means of prevention for these students.

Review of Related Literature

At 70 percent of the colleges where overall graduation rates improved, black

students made progress as well just not as much progress as their peers (Kolodner,
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2016). Colleges and universities are continuously seeking on ways to improve their

graduation rates. However, African-American students are still lacking behind in the

goals of these colleges and universities. Researching this sometimes slow progression

rate as well as the progression of other races is vital to understanding the black college

dropout. "If you look at who enters college, it now looks like America," says Hilary

Pennington, director of post-secondary programs for the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation, which has closely studied enrollment patterns in higher education. "But if

you look at who walks across the stage for a diploma, it's still largely the white, upper-

income population (Thomas, 2010).

Demographic Standpoint

Although, these rates are deficient at some colleges and universities many of them,

experience the opposite effect in their college retention. Rutgers University-New Brunswick

and Purdue University share a few things in common. They have roughly the same size student

body, similar admission requirements and a similar percentage of black students. Yet in the

decade ending 2013, graduation rates for African Americans at Rutgers climbed about 12

percentage points, while they slipped five points at Purdue (Douglas-Gabriel, 2016). Schools of

the same caliber with similar demographic standpoints are establishing very different results.

These results are evident that certain resources that could potentially increase their African-

American retention rates are possibly not being provided by particular universities.

College Environment

When factoring why or how African-Americans are succeeding at some colleges and not

all the feature of what type of college or university that the students are attending must be

considered. The environment that the typical African-American student is in is key to their
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success or failure to reaching their educational goal. Black graduates of historically black

colleges and universities are significantly more likely to have felt supported while in college and

to be thriving afterwards than are their black peers who graduated from predominantly white

institutions, according to the newest data from an ongoing Gallup-Purdue University study (New,

2015).

Student Persistence

To fully and effectively address student persistence, any intervention must consider the

local organizational context and the local student peer environment. Individual students

decisions about whether to persist are made within, and influenced by, these two proximal

contexts (Reason, 2009). A strong understanding of these two portals is vital for the possible

increase of African American (black) retention rate. Persistence is considered to be focused on

the individual students level of goal achievement rather than the college institution goal for

keeping students. A students critical goal may or may not be to graduate from college. Since the

student establishes their goals, a student may successfully continue with their higher education

without being inspired to graduate. Proponents of the latter perspective argue that persistence is

a necessary, but insufficient, characteristics for student successnot itself an indicator of

success. Persistence, on the other hand, is an individual phenomenonstudents persist to a goal

(Reason, 2009).

Student Pre-college Characteristics

Do students possess precollege characteristics and skills that motivate them

to remain enrolled until graduation or do students absorb and learn these values

and behaviors once they are enrolled in a higher education institution?(ONeal,

2012).

Research Questions
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In order to understand and feasibly find a solution to diminish the percentage of black

students dropping out of college, the project will examine the following research questions:

1. What is the average college graduation rate of African-American students?

2. What are the most influential factors that contribute to African-American students

dropping out of college?

3. Do students of other ethnicities use other resources/techniques that allows them to

be successful in college that may not be available to African-American students?

Significance of Study

This study will examine the reasoning for why African-American (black) students fail to

complete post-secondary education, if those reasons could have been avoided/prevented and

what the colleges/universities do to prevent these retention rates. The results of this study will be

given to the U.S. Department of Education for distribution to the colleges or universities that

hold a significantly low African-American (black) retention rate. The colleges or universities that

are provided with these results will be able to use this information to implement or adjust current

programs and guidance for potential drop-out students if necessary. These institutions will also

be encouraged to conduct a study of their own to find solutions that better suit their retention

prevention needs. Future post-secondary students may use this evidence to have a better

understanding of the issues they may face upon their pursuit of higher education as well as offer

solutions on how to solve those issues as they occur.

Method

Although, the amount of African-American (black) students not graduating from college is

diminishing this study will still be able to provide useful knowledge to the students that may

encounter difficulties in their pursuit of a college education. In the approach of gaining

UNDERSTANDING THE BLACK COLLEGE DROPOUT 6

information to provide to potential college goers a qualitative research will be taken from both

successful and non-successful African-American (black) college students. In order to obtain the

data required for this study a survey of questions will be provided to both sectors of the study to

gain further information on their college experience as well as acquire reasons on why they may

have finished or did not finish college. The individuals surveyed will be former students or

alumni from Texas A&M Commerce that attended in pursuit of an undergraduate degree.

Students selected to part take in the survey will be contacted immediately through several

communication portals and given the survey both electronically and mailed a hard copy.

Participants

The participants of this study will be both African-Americans who were successful in completing

their college education as well as those who were not. With this approach the information

provided will view both standpoints of the spectrum to evaluate items that may have assisted or

hindered the success of the African-American (black) student. This study will be done through a

survey of 50 degreed individuals as well as 50 non-degreed students who attended college at

Texas A&M Commerce. Participants for this survey will be randomly selected from the Texas

A&M database using a program entitled RaNDOmiZed. RaNDOmiZed is formatted to filter or

sort through a nation wide database based on given criteria. For this study RaNDOmiZed will be

programmed to filter 50 African-American (black) students that have successfully earned a

college degree from Texas A&M Commerce within five years or less. Once that data is provided

another search will be generated to filter 50 African-American (black) students that have dropped

out of Texas A&M Commerce within the first two years of enrollment and did not enroll into

another higher-education institution afterwards. The individuals that are drawn from the

RaNDOmiZed search will automatically contacted using the communication portals provided by
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RaNDOmiZed. Students will receive an email, automated phone call and mailing informing them

about the survey and the process to complete this survey. Individuals that chose to participate in

the survey will receive an all expense paid trip for two to Montego Bay, Jamaica upon through

completion and return of the survey within a 6 week time frame. If the party chooses not to

participate in the survey or does not complete the survey throughly (answer all questions and

elaborate on responses in required sections) in the time frame specified their opportunity to

participate will be revoked and a new potential participate will be contacted through

RaNDOmiZed.

Instrumentation

The survey provided to the participants will consist of multiple sections. The first section will

ask for confirmation of the surveyees demographic information, including but not limited to:

gender, age, race and current education status. The second section will ask the student 10

multiple choice questions about the students experience at Texas A&M Commerce. These

questions will include inquiries about the educational environment, social life and home life the

student experienced during their time as a student at Texas A&M Commerce. After each multiple

choice question there will be a section for the surveyee to elaborate on their response. The third

section will inquire about why the student chose to stay or to leave the university. The fourth and

final section will request for the student to tell how the university could have better assisted them

in their journey for higher education. Sections three and four will be open-ended format to better

assess the answers.

Research Methods Report #1

Correlational Design
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Correlational means association - more precisely it is a measure of the extent to which

two variables are related (McLeod 2008). Theoretically, a correlational study is considered to be

a quantitative method of research where you determine if there may or may not be a relationship

between two or more quantitative variables usually from the same group of subjects. The purpose

of researchers conducting a correlational study is to determine if two variables directly or

indirectly affect one another. In order for this type of research to work variables that cannot be

controlled are often used.

Correlational allows the examiner to investigate naturally occurring variables that may be

unethical or impractical to test experimentally. For example, it would be unethical to conduct an

experiment on whether smoking causes lung cancer. (McLeod 2008).

Although, correlation design is helpful to many researchers, this method does consist of

both positive and negative characteristics. A positive aspect associated with correlational design

is that it assists researchers with finding a relationship between two variables that may help

conduct foreseen results. One negative feature of correlaational design is that it does not provide

a distinct cause and effect response that many hope for. It is very important to remember that

correlation doesn't imply causation and there is no way to determine or prove causation from a

correlational study. This is a common mistake made by people in almost all spheres of life (Kalla

2011). This can be seen as a disadvantage to many researchers depending on the type of

information they wish to obtain.

Causal Comparative Research

Causal-comparative research, is similar to correlational research, in that it strives to

identify relations among variables of a study. Causal-comparative research attempts to define the

cause or consequences of differentiation that may be established between groups of individuals.

UNDERSTANDING THE BLACK COLLEGE DROPOUT 9

A researcher may wish to compare the body composition of persons who have only

trained with free weights versus persons who have only trained with exercise machines. In this

case the researcher is not manipulating any variables, only investigating the effect of free weights

versus exercise machines on body composition (Kravitz).

There are limits that come with causal-comparative research. Results from causal

comparative research ought to be interpreted with caution since causal-comparative research is

comparable to correlational research. A relation between two or more variables is recognized,

does not essentially mean that a connection among the variables can be proven.

Experimental Design

An experimental design is a plan for assigning experimental units to treatment levels and

the statistical analysis associated with the plan (Kirk, 1995). After the experiment is complete the

researcher must determine if one segment of the experiment preformed better than the other

segment. Experiments are characterized by the: (1) manipulation of one or more independent

variables; (2) use of controls such as randomly assigning participants or experimental units to

one or more independent variables; and (3) careful observation or measurement of one or more

dependent variables (Kirk 2005). Experimental design includes conveying a question and

formulating a hypothesis, testing the question, and examining data.

An example of when experimental design would be beneficial is determining the success of

a college graduate with using different variables. First randomly selecting the group of subjects

(college students regularly attending classes with supplemental instruction, attending classes

without supplemental instruction however, studied material daily, and a control group that

attended classes without any supplemental instruction or extra study time). Next, the effect of

the variables would be gathered for further examination of data.

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References

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diploma-not-enough-more-companies-want-college-grads/

Kolondner, M. (2016, March 23). Even when graduation rates rise, black students at many
colleges get left behind - The Hechinger Report. Retrieved October 10, 2016, from
http://hechingerreport.org/even-when-graduation-rates-rise-black-students-at-many-
colleges-get-left-behind/
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Douglas-Gabriel, D. (2016, March 25). Why are these colleges' black graduation rates so
different? Retrieved October 12, 2016, from
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New, J. (2015, October 28). Survey finds big differences between black HBCU graduates, those
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black-hbcu-graduates-those-who-attended-other

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Siddharth Kalla (Jun 16, 2011). Correlational Study. Retrieved Nov 09, 2016 from
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www.simplypsychology.org/correlation.html

Kirk, R.E. (1995) Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences (3rd edn.).
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Kravitz, L. (n.d.). Understand Research. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from

http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/understandres.html